1. Research project objectives/ Research hypothesis
The aim of the project is to describe the form and function, and to explain the meaning of erecting memorial crosses along public roads in Poland. The main research questions of the project are the following: Why are crosses placed at accident sites in Poland? By whom, and to what extent is a memorial cross identified with religion and to what extent with other categories of meaning? The following hypothesis has been put forward: It depends on the person's religiosity whether the cross erected at the site of a road accident is seen either as a religious symbol or a sign associated with death and a marker of burial sites in the cemetery, characteristic of the individual’s cultural background.
Research project methodology


2.Three scientific methods have been chosen: literature analysis and criticism, observation, and the survey. A database of at least 150 memorial crosses erected along public roads will be created during fieldwork in different parts of the country. Additionally, a two-year observation of several remembrance sites at public roads, urban and rural, has been planned. It will be conducted quarterly, and will involve photographic documentation of memorials to demonstrate the seasonality of social practices associated with them, as well as the variability/reproducibility of their appearance and artifacts they are accompanied with. The technical tools used for the project purposes will be the photographic equipment and computer software provided by the project manager and contractors. Two techniques of diagnostic survey will be used: a public opinion poll (10 questions, including 2 open ones) and an individual interview. A pilot study prior to conducting the survey on a representative sample of 1000 adult Poles is included in the work schedule. Individual interviews will be conducted with 12 people who have put crosses at the sites of car accidents. They will be semi-structured interviews. A semiotic analysis is also scheduled.


3.The expected impact of the research project on the development of science, civilization and society
This project fills in the cognitive gap in the literature on roadside memorials in Poland and Eastern Europe. The conclusions from the study will be an important contribution to the development of geography and interdisciplinary research on deathscapes. The results of the project will be crucial for regional comparative studies on this subject. The project will also expand the knowledge about the modern use of the ancient symbol of the cross. Some of the results can be applied by the bodies governing public roads in Poland, when constructing the policy regarding the legislatively unregulated phenomenon of death commemorations along roads.